On April 18, Moscow will host the 14th meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC). Russia views the RIC dialogue mechanism as a vital element of multilateral network diplomacy serving to build a fair world order and to create a comprehensive, equal and indivisible security architecture and to promote inclusive and sustainable economic development in Asia Pacific.

The ministers will discuss current global and regional issues, ways in which to strengthen international law as the foundation of the world order, and collective resistance to common challenges. They will focus on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria, Iraq and Libya, a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, developments in Afghanistan, and the settlement of the internal political crisis in Ukraine.

The ministers’ agenda will focus on the need to redouble joint efforts against international terrorism and the global drug threat. The ministers will discuss ways to improve coordination in the framework of multilateral organisations, primarily the UN, the SCO, BRICS, the East Asia Summit and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

Following the meeting, the RIC minsters will adopt a joint communique.

Cooperation in the RIC format was launched on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly sessions in New York in 2003−2005 and during the meeting of the CICA ministers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in October 2004.

The first RIC summit meeting was held in July 2006 on the sidelines of the G8 meeting in St Petersburg. The RIC ministers held their first meeting, which was not part of international forums, in 2005 and have since met regularly in the member countries on a rotational basis.  During these meetings, the RIC ministers coordinate approaches to key international issues and outline areas of practical cooperation.

India will take over the RIC presidency from Russia at the Moscow meeting.